Frances cash netted her fifth Dublin supreme hunter championship yesterday, riding Tony and Julie Lockwood's heavyweight winner Caruso - but she is only halfway towards Jack Gittins's record 10 Dublin wins for Nat Galway-Greer.
Cash had not sat on a horse at all this season following surgery, but got back in the saddle a fortnight ago, determined to ride the big chestnut in the RDS show rings. "It's the best tonic I could have," the delighted Prosperous, Co Kildare, producer said.
Caruso, a five-year-old gelded son of the Clover Hill sire Tara Clover, had little difficulty in securing his class on the opening day of the show and then held off the challenge of Sam McAteer's Easy Street yesterday to claim the heavyweight cup en route to the supreme judging.
Cash bought the big chestnut last October, selling him on to the Lockwoods at Christmas in a bid for the double after their Dublin triumph with Formidable in 1998. Formidable had marked Cash's number four on the RDS supreme tally, which had started with Standing Ovation in 1983, with Overture (1986) and Glengarriff (1994) in the interim.
But, despite her own ill health and the fact that Caruso had been beaten at his only two outings in Balmoral and Cork with George Mernagh in the plate, Cash had no doubt that the horse would go all the way in Ballsbridge. The build-up to Formidable's victory had also been difficult, with Cash missing most the season after being injured when a horse reared over on top of her.
Helen Troughton's Silken Crisp, ridden by the owner's daughter Kelly (19), took the lightweight honours and reserve in the supreme behind Caruso. The six-year-old Standard Bearer gelding, national novice dressage champion last year, had filled the same slot in the line-up for the Balmoral supreme in May.
Dessie Gibson scored a total whitewash in the two young horse championships, scooping the Anthony Maude three-year-old cup with John Donaghy's Kyleown, which was shown to claim the heavyweight division by Sam McCormick. Co Down man Gibson also produced Brenda Turley's home-bred lightweight winner Walter to stand reserve in the three-year-olds, as well as the two-year-old champion, his own Walnut Dash.
Dessie Gibson, who broke his leg out hunting earlier in the year, is to curtail his show-ring outings this year and will be bidding for the hat-trick in the yearling championship this morning - and he must be a hot favourite for the supreme young horse championship at lunchtime.